


Skeleton Song

by afleetoffoxes



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Kinda Risingwood if you want it to be?, M/M, Song fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 18:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6867763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afleetoffoxes/pseuds/afleetoffoxes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan has always had a special friend. He’s had him since he can even remember, had someone watching over him as he slept and as he played. He knew that other kids had imaginary friends that they played with but those friends weren’t real. But Ryan’s friend was real, despite the fact that no one else could see him, he knew his friend was real. </p><p>The first time he met Jon he remembers the skeleton man looking at him from across the playground when he was 6.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skeleton Song

**Author's Note:**

> So I wanted to post some of my old works on here and instead I'm listening to music and a song comes on and suddenly a fic is born. I'm super worried I've read this fic before. Or something like it. If anyone has any ideas about the fic I'm thinking of you could link it to me? Would appreciate. 
> 
> Was gonna go more Risingwood with this but I ended it on a friendship. Cause I'm weak.
> 
> Song Fic:  
> Skeleton Song - Kate Nash

Ryan has always had a special friend. He’s had him since he can even remember, had someone watching over him as he slept and as he played. He knew that other kids had imaginary friends that they played with but those friends weren’t real. But Ryan’s friend was real, despite the fact that no one else could see him, he knew his friend was real. 

The first time he met Jon he remembers the skeleton man looking at him from across the playground when he was 6. Ryan only remembered it so vividly because he’d never seen a person with their bones showing before. He walked over to the strange man who seemed startled for some reason but Ryan just smiled and stuck out his hand like his saw his papa do when he met someone.

“Hello! My name is Ryan! Why are your bones showing?” he asked, smile wide on his face.

The man stared at him for a moment before taking his hand. The bones felt cool and hard as they wrapped around Ryan’s hand but the boy didn’t mind at all. It was a reassuring coolness that made him feel comfortable. “I’m Jon. I’m a skeleton.”

Ryan nodded, having read in a book that skeletons were something everyone had. They made the body strong and able to move properly. “How come you don’t have any skin?” the child pulled at the skin on his arms as if to show it off.

The skeleton gave an awkward little grin and bent down to Ryan’s height to whisper into his ear. “It’s because I’m dead,” he told him like a secret.

Ryan’s eyes grew wide in wonder. He’d never met a dead person before. He grinned and clapped his hands excitedly. “Will you be my friend Jon? I know you’re probably a busy adult, mama and papa are always busy you see and I don’t have that many friends…” the small boy trailed off, glancing at the other kids on the playground who never seemed to want to play with him. 

The skeleton man looked at the children and then at the boy in front of him before smiling and laying a boney hand on the boy’s arm in comfort. “Of course I’ll be your friend. I think you’re great Ryan and someday everyone else will too.”

Ryan beamed but soon his mama was calling after him and telling him it was time for dinner. He said his goodbyes to his friend and asked that they play together again soon. Jon nodded and waved after Ryan happily.

\- - - -

Ryan spent his dinner telling his parents about Jon but didn’t really understand why they didn’t look happy about his new friend. When it was time for bed his mama tucked him in comfortably and kissed his forehead, telling him she was happy he had a new friend. Ryan beamed and closed his eyes until he heard a tapping noise. Getting up, the boy looked at his window and saw Jon silhouetted by the streetlight.

The boy hurried over, pushing his reading chair closer to the window so he could pull it open for his friend. The skeleton climbed in silently and closed the window for the boy. He was surprised when a pair of small arms wrapped around his bony legs.

“I’m so happy you’re here Jon!” the boy whispered excitedly, pulling the skeleton over to his bed.

“Me too, Ryan,” the skeleton said, his voice soft in the child’s ear.

“Why’d you come over?” Ryan asked, hearing something almost sad in Jon’s voice. “Are you okay?”

Jon nodded his head, smiling at his little friend and patting his hair. “I’m okay. I just wanted to be near you.”

Ryan seemed okay with that answer and crawled back into bed, letting Jon tuck him back under the covers. The man was about to get up to go sit in the chair by the window when Ryan’s small voice asked, “Jon? Would you tell me a story?”

Jon smiled and nodded, pulling the chair over by the bed to be closer to the child. “Once upon a time…”

\- - - -

Ryan spent the next few years playing with his skeleton friend and learning everything he could about the man. 

He learned that Jon had died a long time ago. After that first night, Jon had come back wearing tattered old clothes, an old shirt, a vest and slacks riddled with moth holes. He said they were his clothes from an old time. Jon wore the clothes all the time now and when Ryan asked why, the skeleton told him he didn’t want to be naked in front of him. Ryan had giggled so Jon was happy.

A little while later, Ryan asked Jon why he spent so much time with him. He wasn’t complaining but the skeleton never seemed to talk to anyone else and Ryan wondered if he was shy. Jon just smiled sadly and told him that no one else seemed to be able to see him. Ryan felt bad and spent hours drawing pictures of Jon to show the other kids. They all laughed and teased him, making fun of his skeleton friend.

That night his mama and papa sat him down to tell him that he was too old to have imaginary friends. That he had to forget about “Jon”. Ryan threw a wicked tantrum and was sent to his room where Jon was waiting. The skeleton drew the boy into his bony arms as he sobbed, telling Jon that he wouldn’t forget. 

After Ryan’s tears dried, Jon helped the boy into bed and told him very gently that maybe it was best if Ryan didn’t talk to him when other people were around. He would be Ryan’s secret friend that no one else knew about. The boy liked that idea.

\- - - -

Ryan was 18 the first time he brought a girl home. He was so excited because girls weren’t really into his whole nerd thing that he forgot Jon would be there. They stared at each other in shock, the expression still looking funny to Ryan on a skull, while the girl asked if everything was all right.

Jon bowed his head in embarrassment and Ryan thought he’d be blushing if he were alive. “I’ll leave,” the skeleton said but of course only Ryan could hear him. Ryan moved to the side so his friend could squeeze past the girl and head out into the rest of the house and presumably outside.

Ryan didn’t see Jon again for a couple of days. He was getting concerned because Jon never stayed away longer than a night. It was usually when Ryan was caught in an awkward situation, having to act normal for people while Jon was around and talking to him. Jon always felt bad on those nights and chose to give Ryan his space. Ryan would always cool down and remember that Jon had no one else to talk to in the world and that he’d talked to him for years. Jon was just so used to being able to talk to someone that sometimes he forgot he wasn’t supposed to.

On Jon’s third missing night, Ryan went out to look for him. He didn’t actually know where Jon went when he left Ryan but the man had his suspicions. He knew Jon had been buried in a cemetery not too far away and headed there first.

The walk gave Ryan a lot of time to think and once again, the recurring thought that he’d been having surfaced. He’d been thinking recently how Jon was such an inconvenience, always seeming to get him in trouble or weird stares at the very least. He thought that maybe his life would be better without Jon. He could just get a bat or a hammer, hit him when he wasn’t looking… He could smash Jon’s bones and rebury them… Jon would finally be fully dead.

The thoughts were wiped away as Ryan reached the cemetery and saw a skeletal man sitting against a grave, head to one side as though he was sleeping. All the love that Ryan had for Jon came rushing back in that moment of vulnerability and Ryan realized he could never hurt his friend.

Jon looked up as Ryan approached, looking as guilty as a skull could. Ryan just gave him a happy little smile and reached out a hand. “Come on, let’s go home.”


End file.
